


Holyhead

by Frumpologist



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, alcohol use, meet cute, meet in a pub
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-13
Updated: 2019-10-13
Packaged: 2020-12-14 19:49:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21021302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Frumpologist/pseuds/Frumpologist
Summary: Theo’s exile to Holyhead was dull, until a certain redhead turns up at his favorite pub.





	Holyhead

**Author's Note:**

> This little ditty was written for Draco's Den's Fest: A Slytherin Walks Into a Pub. I chose Theo Nott as my character and the admins provided Ginny Weasley as the character he meets in a pub. I actually quite like the feel of this pairing; I might explore it more at some point. Thanks, admin!!

The weather in Holyhead was unbearably crisp. Misty rain hovered in the air, as if a cloud had fallen to the earth below. Theo watched from behind a foggy window; ships came into port, men carted crates along a beaten path, and cars splashed the rainwater into the sodden grass as they sped down the road.

It was all dreadfully boring. Wales, as he’d come to learn in the fortnight he’d spent there, was dishearteningly dull.

And he was expected to find a home here, to lay down roots, and start a family.

He cradled a large shot glass between his hands and glared at the lackadaisical life that kept moving just outside the pub window. It wasn’t for him. It was too quiet, too normal, too… Muggle.

This wasn’t to say that Theo had any sort of problem with Muggles. It’s just that he didn’t  _ care _ either way. Their mundane lives were just that, and as the Ministry had no use for him as an auror in Britain, and promised that he’d make a great international liaison, well… Theo’s life was then expected to thrive in Wales.

However, it’d been two weeks and he’d yet to find any case at all. Sometimes, Muggles would get caught up with wizards who used the national forest for ingredient gathering, but Theo could cast an Obliviate in his sleep. There was nothing new or exciting or, in fact, interesting at all, that happened in Wales. And he was more than sure that the Ministry sent him there on purpose.

So, what more was there to do on a grim, wet Tuesday afternoon than to park his arse in a cozy little pub by the docks and drink? He was four tall shot glasses in when the trajectory of his life in Wales was catapulted out of boring and straight into something else entirely.

“Theodore Nott?” It was a familiar voice, one he associated with darker days and harder times.

He turned slowly, lifting his chin over his shoulder and raising a curious brow. Red hair plaited down one side, a forest green jumper with a quidditch emblem branded in yellow, and that cheeky, lopsided smirk that he never thought he’d see again, caught him off guard. A breath left him, out in one single motion, and he flicked his eyes to hers. Hesitant, just as he felt.

“Weasley.” He tipped his chin and promptly turned back around to face the spitting skies outside the window.

“Ginny, actually,” she informed him as she rounded his back and invited herself to sit across from him. A silent snort jerked his body, eyes rolled and he hoped she could see. “You see, I have six brothers who also go by Weasley. It gets confusing if the only one without a prick is also called by her surname.”

Theo couldn’t help himself. A laugh escaped him. “So, then. What’s the only Weasley without a prick doing in Wales? Thought you were off to marry Boy Wonder and live happily ever after.”

That smirk pulled at her lips again. He found himself fascinated with it. Very Slytherin, if he were any judge of that sort of thing. “Maybe one day.” She shrugged, flagged down the bartender for a drink, and then turned back to him. “For now, I’ve been named first line Chaser for the Holyhead Harpies.”

“Right, of course, you were always brilliant.” Theo sipped from his drink and flexed his fingers against the glass.

“You noticed?” Dark red eyebrows shot up in surprise. Her cheeks turned pink, making the freckles around her nose darken.

“I don’t think there’s anyone at Hogwarts who didn’t notice.” The rain was pouring down heavier outside as Theo turned his gaze from her to the harbor once more.

“I think that might be the kindest thing a Slytherin has ever said to me.” She grasped her drink as the barkeep set it down in front of her, and took a big swallow. Ginny winced, and Theo laughed at the way her face pinched under the burn of whiskey. “That’s actually disgusting. How can you drink that? It tastes like spoiled pumpkin juice.”

Theo shrugged and tossed back the last of his swill. “Years of practice, love. Do you have practice today?”

“No, I just wear my quidditch robes around for the hell of it.” That damned smirk again; it made him want to throw her against a wall and snog it off. Highly inappropriate, not at all what he should be thinking.

“Want some company?” Theo asked instead, the much more mature, gentlemanly option.

Ginny’s keen eyes watched him, flitted across his face like she was mapping it out to remember later. And then, curious of all, she shrugged and nodded. “It would be nice to have a familiar face there.”

Funny that. He felt the same about Holyhead, too.

Theo couldn’t yet see how this one chance meeting would affect his life. But, if he had to wager a guess, he’d say that, at the very least, Holyhead wouldn’t be the most boring town to live in with Ginny Weasley as a neighbor.


End file.
